Hankb comments

JT - Honestly, why give this loser a big photo and any airtime at all. He's a big attention loving troll trying to regain relevance. Just ignore him.

My worry is that even with the vaccine passport, I will be required to do the 2 week quarantine on return for quite some time. Why? Since vaccination can't be legally required here, won't it be considered discriminatory to have vaccinated folks do no quarantine and the unvaccinated do a quarantine? Having finished my two shots, I was thinking to travel to visit family this Aug. Sept. Now not sure..

Nice pic of an idiot without his mask on.

Look at his right hand.

He has a mask. He stands, does not talk. I do not see any problem.

haha.. Do you mean no problem for you? Idiot may be a strong word, but why would he be protecting his hand and not his air holes?

I visited Kyoto for a bit of nightlife as Osaka is still shutting down at 9 pm. Wow..Japans "Go Kyoto" campaign seems really successful. Lots of tourists happily enjoying the cherry blossoms and then drinks in bars till late...Like the good old days! Japan seems ready to declare victory/defeat and just move on.

"The lame Mar-a-Lago duck will never fly again. His impeached goose is cooked for good as he faces a lifetime of litigation for his high crimes and misdemeanors. And let's not forget his most heinous legacy: the 600,000+ who will not have gone away "like a miracle" by the summer."

I agree the most likely scenario is he fades into obscurity politically, but continues to fight in court for years.

A less likely possibilty is he continues to be some kind of political force, but splits the Republican party. That would be best because they deserve it for their cowardice and idiocy.

Very unlikely is that he rises again to any kind of position of power. He will certainly never be re elected IMO.

Why was he not re elected? One reason - he denied the pandemic was real because he thought it would hurt the economy and his re election chances. When it became clear to the whole world that we had big problem, instead of reversing course like others, he doubled down over and over again. Looking at the voting numbers, he was set to win if it had not been for the pandemic. In the end, it took one scourge to rid us of another.

There's something weird about this. Either your city is in a state of emergency or it isn't. How come these cities are "seeking" a state of emergency?

"Seeking" means asking for formal recognition from the central governement that you are in a State of Emergency. If that formal recognition is made, federal money can come your way is what I'm guessing.

I would like to see more news on Japan's plan for buying this vaccine and distributing it. There is an article today in J Times about how Japan is trying to make the vaccine but that it won't be ready till 2022. Why is Japan's taking it slow on this discussed more? last in the G7 I hear...

I can understand how wearing a Hitler style mustache is not a good idea, and may never be acceptable. But it's ridiculous to associate a fairly generic style mustache with Japan's Imperial Governers.

Then again, though he may be uniquely qualified for the job, giving the Korean ambassador's job to a man who is half Japanese seems pretty insensitive considering the history between the two countries and continuing animosity. It may be he contributed a lot to someone's campaign and so he was given the job. Weren't there any better choices that that?

Just keep it simple and wear the mask when others are around you. It gives you some protection, it gives them some protection. The effect on breathing is not such a big deal right? Most older Japanese are used to masks and accept mask wearing in a pandemic as common sense. Younger Japanese and foreigners are the ones to resist this...it's a new world, embrace the mask and we won't have to shut down businesses. To be honest, its not smart to be among others and not wear a mask, and it makes many people feel uncomfortable.

....and Taiwan, which is the country has dealt best with Corona, had no lockdown.

No lockdown but they quickly closed their borders...Unfortunately for us here who like to travel, that does seem to work. America closed to China early but let Italians come freely...should have known better. Trump probably only closed to China as part of his trade negotiations anyway...

So around 300,000 tested so far but soon they can produce 400,000 per week? For export or for actual use here in Japan? Seems like the big promises for testing are just meant to calm the populace (as is the lack of testing).